


Guardian>Avenger

by starsandsupernovae



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Peter Quill Feels, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), StarkQuill Secret Santa 2017, Starkquill - Freeform, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, hence tony stark needing hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-22 20:52:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13174980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandsupernovae/pseuds/starsandsupernovae
Summary: After the events of civil war all Tony wants is to be able to completely throw himself into his work and not think about anything or anyone else. The last thing he needs is a bickering family of guardians landing on his rooftop. And yet....





	Guardian>Avenger

**Author's Note:**

> My Secret Santa gift for @musingsfromtheclosetofanunknown on tumblr!

Fury was about one minute away from banging his head against his desk.

“Tell me, Hill, how is it that we have the best minds in the world working for us, we have countless resources, we have access to all databases, and we still can’t figure out their damn ship?!”

Maria didn’t even look up from the report she was reading as he raged.

Ever since the group calling themselves “The Guardians of the Galaxy” had crashed on the planet two days ago everyone up to the highest level of SHIELD had been shaken, trying to figure out the next steps. Clearly the ship needed to be fixed but as of that morning- Maria threw down the schematics they had figured out.

“We’re not even close. And that’s not even the biggest problem. They can’t stay on the tricarrier. Too many places they can’t go and are inevitably going to end up. You hear whispers about some of them, from alien tech we’ve gathered, fragments of data. They’re not going to remain in their rooms here.”

“Well, we don’t have all the best minds here.” Fury hesitated and that got Maria to look at him, a moment before she figured it out.

“He won’t do it.”

“He has the space. And you know if anyone can figure it out he can. It just makes sense to call him.”

“He’s done with this superhero business, Fury. He’s completely focused on his company. He flinches when anyone so much as mentions the words ‘Iron Man’. He’s not going to get involved with this.”

“We’re not asking him to fight them, we’d just be giving him new tech to look at!”

“Yeah, because that’s definitely going to be a distinction that he cares about…”

“No.” His tone was firm, cool, and over the phone, Tony knew no one could see his hand clutching the desk so tightly his knuckles were white. “I don’t do that anymore. I’m not him anymore. You have an alien problem, you can get someone else to fix it.”

“I’m not asking you to do anything but host them, and possibly look at how we can get their ship off the ground. Complete access to the whole of the ship and all of its technology.”

Tony could’ve said no. He should’ve said no. He wasn’t dealing with that now, he was focusing on his company, he kept telling himself, focusing on all that the- the team had kept him from. But in truth, all the routine work he had started again wasn’t enough, not to hold back his thoughts, his memories, and the demons within. And alien technology…… previously unseen innovation-the scientist within him just refused to give that up.

“Well, if you can’t of course, I guess we’ll have no other option but to call Hammer, and see what he ca-”

At that, something in Tony rebelled.

“I’ll do it! But you owe me.”

“I’m giving you the biggest technological find of the century, Stark. You can take it or leave it.” Fury barked, keeping of satisfaction from his voice. “I’ll have an intern call you back with the specifics.”

“Rocket!” Gamora was trying, Peter noticed, she was but even she couldn’t keep her laughter from slipping in as they surveyed what Rocket had constructed in middle of the small room he had been given, a contraption that seemed to have utilized parts stripped from just about everything there, including the light, the bed, and….part of the sink?”

“I got bored okay?” Rocket crossed his arms defensively. “We been here what? A week? And at least i didn’t ruin an entire training room!”

“I was teaching Mantis how to fight! It’s not my fault they have weak ‘training dummies’.”

Peter decided now was probably a good time to step in.

“Alright children-”

“There are no children here.” Drax spoke up from where he had somehow snuck up behind him. “We are all fully grown.”

“Fair enough.” Peter acknowledged. “Alright, fully grown people. Everyone here clearly has a lot of pent up aggression here, and there’s really not a lot of room, but we’re moving tomorrow, some billionaire genius has room and some ideas about the ship. Can we hang on till then?”

Gamora shrugged.

Rocket shrugged harder.

Gamora glared.

Rocket met it.

They both laughed, Rockets hearty one mingling with Gamoras soft chuckles, the equivalent of hysterics for the assassin.

Drax frowned. “Hang on to what?”

“I am groot.” Small wooden tendrils snaked out from with the thing in middle of the room.

“Groot! I thought I told you to stay away!”

“I am Groot.”

Peter gave the team a quick onceover as they prepared to step out of the helicarrier.

“Remember we are the Guardians of the Galaxy, we are cool, we are smooth, we look good, we act cool, we go around space being cool, we-”

“Overuse the word cool apparently.” Gamora finished drily as the doors opened and Rocket let out a snort of laughter,Groot smiling on his shoulder. And so the first glimpse Tony Stark could’ve gotten was of a happy baby tree. Orit could’ve been a tall lethal looking green woman smiling down at them, what looked like a laughing raccoon, or even of a smaller woman laughing as she felt the mirth roll off the raccoon. But it wasn’t. What caught his attention, was the man in the middle, brow slightly furrowed in annoyance, running his hand through dirty blond hair. Peter looked over immediately recognizing him as the leader of the small group standing at the front of, what did they call it, the compound. It was something in the way the man stood, shoulders back, perfectly poised, before he walked over, steps confident and calculated. He tilted his sunglasses, revealing the deepest brown eyes Peter had ever seen.

“So you’re the aliens.”

“And you’re the human.” It slipped out before Peter could evaluate and he decided to just roll with it.

“I’m Peter Quill. Starlord, leader of the Guardians” he added holding out his hand, and ignoring Rocket in the background.

The man took it.

“Tony Stark. CEO of Stark Industries”

Tony walked briskly into his workshop, holding himself up, forcing confidence into his step before entering his workshop, trying not to show how draining setting everything up up until meeting the team had been.

“FRIDAY, tint the windows.”

As soon as he was invisible to the outside he fell into a chair, shoulders falling, just curling up into himself a little, reaching for a drink he had left on his desk downing it in a single gulp, trying to tell himself what he had been trying to tell himself for months now, that he was doing fine, that he was perfectly ok, that he didn’t need anything else, didn’t need anyone else. He considered getting up and going over to the ship parts that he had brought in, considered signing some of the mounds of paperwork he had to do, considered beginning to set up meetings with those he needed to meet with.

That had been the worst he had decided, the meetings afterwards, showing that while the Avengers may have fallen apart, Stark Industries was stronger than ever, and harder yet, infinitely harder, that while Iron Man was gone, Tony Stark was still invincible. He knew the drill, Starks were ‘born to be businessmen’ as his father had always told him and he had taken his advice, ‘stand straight, smile wide, no one knows what you’re feeling inside’. An easy rhyme for a child, even if the child wasn’t the genius Tony was.

And eventually he seemed to have been able to turn the feelings off, watch his body go through the motions as though from the outside staring in. This way, he could continue, this way he could survive.

“And here,” John, the intern showing them around, gestured “is the kitchen. You can, if you so choose prepare food here, or you can ask FRIDAY, the local AI, to order in”

“FRIDAY?” Peter asked

“I am here to assist.” A disembodied voice rang out.

“Hi!” Mantis waved enthusiastically.

“Hello Mantis. Welcome to the Avengers Compound.”

While Mantis continued talking to the air, Gamora turned to the intern.

“Avengers Compound?”

John looked immediately uncomfortable.

“Well, the avengers, a, a team of superheroes lived here. They,” he hesitated, unsure how to describe what had happened, the utter betrayal that had taken place, the entire country holding its breath as their greatest heros fought, the collective loss they had all suffered at the end.

“They don’t anymore. There was a fight, and, uh, they fell apart. You can ask FRIDAY about it later and of course you all have computers in your rooms. Mr Stark has also provided phones and service for however long you stay.”

Rocket grinned.

“I like this guy. He has a big place, and he’s giving me stuff.”

“Who’s paying for everything? Surely this doesn’t fall entirely on Stark?” Gamora asked.

John gave her an odd look, possibly compounded with fear as she did look slightly intimidating with a sword that was half his size.

“No, this is all Mr. Stark. He pays for everything. He did for his team as well.”

“His team? Was he on the avengers then? And funding them? Well I guess we know who was a favorite of that team.” Peter remarked idly, trying to focus on the tour and the poor intern, now looking incredibly uncomfortable, instead of on the man who had shaken his hand, the warm chocolate eyes that told of a story that something in Peter desperately yearned to hear.

“Well, this is really all I need to show you.” John finished hurriedly. “But I…I would look up the avengers. And what happened to them. Look up the disappearance of Captain America. And, uh, the death of Iron Man.”

Tony had looked through the documents twice before he realized what was missing, the gapingly obvious hole in the information he had been given. He left his workshop tentatively, automatically slipping into his Power and Confidence walk as he strode away from his safe space towards the compound where the Guardians were residing. He entered into the common area where the leader, the surprisingly good looking Starlord was sitting, watching something on his phone, which he quickly shut down as Tony approached.

“Mr. Stark!” He looked up at him and smiled, a wide grin flitting over his lips, causing something within Tony to flutter, waking up for the first time in a while before he hurriedly pushed it down.

“Tony, please, Mr. Stark is way too official.”

“Well hello, Tony. I’m sorry, we didn’t really have time to speak earlier. My team and I are extremely thankful for your accomodation of us.” His brow furrowed slightly. “That feels like it was grammatically wrong. But you know what I mean. Thank you.”

Tony paused for a moment, taken aback.

“No, of course. It’s no problem to me.” He cleared his throat hurriedly. “Anyways, it seems as though the information I was given lacks the input of whoever deals with the ship normally on the team. Who would that be?”

“That would be Rocket.”

At the sound of his name the alien appeared at the doorway.

“Somebody ask for me?”

It took Tony approximately .7 of a second to get over the fact that the racoon looking creature was the mechanic.

“I wanted your analysis of the ship, can you come down with me to where I’m working on it?”

He had moved it to his secondary workshop in anticipation of another person working with him, the one where other people could enter, unlike the first one, the one which only he ever did. Well, he and a few others at one point. But they had left now, left the workshop, and now it was only him.

“Yeah, sure.” Rocket turned to Groot, on his shoulder kicking his feet. “You wanna come too?”  
“I am Groot!” the little tree nodded vigorously.   
The three left, leaving Quill behind staring after Tony, both thinking about their brief conversation and admiring the view.

“Well I see someone’s enjoying his time on Terra.”

Gamora walked in.

He turned to face her as she sat next to him.

“Did you look him up? Because I did. I researched what happened with him, with the group of people they called his team.” The last word was said angrily, aggression pouring through.

“I confess I have yet to go through the information available.”

“They blamed him for pretty much everything and anything that happened wrong. And no one once mentions the good he’s done for all of them, not in all the interviews i’ve read, even pre the team breaking up. He payed for them all, they lived in his compound and all they did is blame shit on him. This was his team. And then he tried to take responsibility for what happened, tried to put some rules into place and they fought him. Apparently something happened in Siberia, no one’s quite sure what. But that happens, everyone disappears for a couple of months before Tony resurfaces. And he doesn’t talk about it. Ever.”

Gamora tilted her head, dark hair tumbling over her shoulder.

“You feel very strongly about Stark.” It wasn’t a question exactly but Peter answered.

“Well do you feel nothing about this?!”

“I feel for the man.” her face was impassive, but Peter knew that her quietest rage was what should be feared, loud, angry rage was quick, could pass easily. When Gamora started thinking, someone was going to burn.

“But you have something more, yes?”

Peter shrugged.

“He’s just a guy who lets us stay in his house. And hasn’t spoken to us except once” the words emerged quickly, and Peter got up and left before she could follow up.

Tony nodded as Rocket pointed out the critical fault in the control center, while Groot appeared in deep conversation with DUM-E.

“So basically we’ll need two, three weeks tops to fix this.”

Rocket looked at him in surprise.

“Are ya sure? I’d say this is ‘round a month job at least.”

Tony gave him a tiny grin, one which he realized with a dart of surprise was genuine, born of a couple of hours working with someone with whom he could speak proper science and mechanic terms.

“I’m special.”

“You have a lotta experience with non Terran tech?”

“Some.” His face closed down a little.

“When’d you start messing around with this kinda shit anyway? I didn’t think the bigshots of most companies down here get their hands dirty like this.”

Tony shrugged.

“The CEO stuff is boring. This is what’s always interested me. Honestly, I could probably hand over pretty much all I do as the head of this company to an assistant and it would run just as, if not more smoothly. What about you?”

Rocket looked like he was about to shut down himself, but changed his mind.

“I was meant to be some kinda experiment I guess. But they fucked up when they gave me a personality.” He let out a bitter laugh. “They gave me too much. I got a gun, I got Groot, and I picked up some skills, some places. Then we ran into Quill and Gamora, we were in jail with Drax, we all busted out together, due to my expert skills. We picked Mantis up on Peter’s father, before killing him. Then we crashed our ship here. It wasn’t me though.”

“You picked Mantis up…..on Peter’s father?”

“He was a planet.” Rocket shrugged, sliding out from under the ship. “It got complicated. But basically that’s the team’s story. Now we go around guarding the galaxy and whatever. One big fucked up family.”

“Sounds nice.”

Rocket looked over at him, expecting to see sarcasm on his face, but saw only a slightly wistful sincerity.

“It’s not the worst.” he admitted, before a loud BANG! was heard and they looked around to see DUM-E and Groot looking somewhat abashed next to a piece of sparking metal.

The next week fell into a routine, Rocket coming down to the workshop for most of the day, bringing Groot to do whatever he and DUM-E got up to in the corner. They would banter a bit, loud music playing, Rocket relieved to discover that Peter’s music wasn’t the only type Terra had to offer. It was about 8 days later when Rocket spoke up near the end.

“You should come back with us. Talk with the rest of the team.”

Tony gave a little laugh.

“I doubt they’d be too interested, and I’m busy.”

“C’mon, you’re not at all interested in speaking to the first friendly aliens to visit the planet in forever? And they wanna talk with ya.”

Tony was poised to say no. A refusal was right on his lips.

“Alright.”He followed Rocket back to where the team was gathered in the kitchen, pizza on the table.

“Stark!” Drax greeted him loudly and Tony almost instinctively flinched back before he realized it was in welcome. He was suddenly acutely aware that he was wearing an old AC/DC shirt and jeans, and probably had grease stains everywhere.

“Hey guys. And please, call me Tony.”

Peter smiled at him again, the same smile that lit something inside him, however hard he tried to snuff it out. He had intended to stay a few minutes and leave, but he was curious about their stories, and somewhere between Drax’s tale of a shapeshifting alien, and Rockets telling of his fourth prison break, involving someone’s prosthetic ear he found that himself sitting with them piece of pizza in front of him, feeling emotions he hadn’t in a while, genuine laughter bubbling through his lips, while they spoke, letting the atmosphere, the warmth and closeness of them all wash over him. And so this too became part of the routine, working in the second workshop, and then going up to the rest of them, where as it turned out, Drax was able to cook quite well. And of course, Peter’s smile and crystal blue eyes were a bonus.

And in these moments, he could convince himself he was ok, he was happy.

It was after one of these nights after the other guardians had gone off, leaving only Tony and Peter at the table that Tony had tilted his head a bit and asked-

“Why’d you do it? All the ‘starlord’ good guy, thing?”

Peter shrugged.

“I didn’t want the galaxy that I was living in to die?”

“Yeah, but why did you have to be the one to save it? Why not alert someone else, some space police force, whoever it is that keeps arresting Rocket?”

“I didn’t know if they could. And I felt sorta responsible I guess. Like, maybe I could stop it, so I should. And then once the team was together, we just….stayed together. Doing the good guy thing”

Tony nodded slightly distracted by Peter running a hand through his messed up blond hair.

Peter took a breath before deciding to ask.

“Why’d you use to do it? The Iron Man good guy thing?”

He felt rather then saw the reaction that followed, the tenseness that infused Tony’s entire body at the name, the muscles contracting, the knuckles whitening.

“I’d hardly call Iron Man a good thing. I didn’t do it for some great cosmic good or anything. I kind of needed the suit to survive when I made it. Then I was called in. And then I realized that the Iron Man did more harm than good. So I killed it.”

There was a heavy silence that followed, Tony feeling Peter’s gaze full of what he was sure was

“So why the outdated music storage? I refuse to believe space has nothing more then zune technology.”

“Well, uh, it’s Terran really. I like finding pieces of Earth around. And this was after I lost my Walkman, so I needed a replacement.”

“Your Walkman? How did a pretty boy like you equip a Walkman to survive in space and not run out of battery or some shit?”

“I may have gotten someone to make some modifications.” Peter admitted trying to ignore ‘pretty boy’.

“But a Walkman? Really? Do they have cassette tapes in space?”

“I had two.”

“Where’d you even get those? A retro space store?”

Peter paused, humor leaving his face. “From my mom. The second one- it was the last thing she gave to me before she passed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.” Peter flashed a smile that Tony knew all too well. He should, after all, he saw it every day when he looked in the mirror. “Not your fault, no reason to be sorry.”

“I still am though.” Tony reached across the table and gently took Peter’s hand, surprising both of them. Peter look at their entwined hands in silence for several moments but didn’t remove his.

“You know, I’m happy SHIELD moved us here.” He said suddenly. “You’re a good guy, Tony.” He got up and left Tony to walk back to his workshop immersed in his thoughts.

_You’re a good guy, Tony._

What happened wasn’t her fault, it was no one’s really. Tony reached out for the salt one night, not really looking, deep in conversation with Rocket. So did Mantis. And then everything happened at once. Gamora called for her to stop, Drax reached for her, she turned at the sudden noise, but it was too late, her hand brushed against Tony even as he tried to withdraw it at the commotion.

And Mantis fell. She fell past the thin layer of plastic happiness, down through the everlasting void, the empty nothingness that was filling the man’s mind, and then as she fell, she passed the walls, so carefully constructed, so tall and powerful and it hit her hard, pure pain like a stab in the heart. She curled up into herself, feeling the pain, the loneliness, the betrayal pulsing through her, the guilt poison rushing through her veins. He felt her there, he felt her sharing his pain and another emotion joined, another evil from the Pandora’s box she had uncovered, white hot shame. She realized dimly that she was no longer touching him, their hands had brushed for just a moment but in that moment……she stared up into his face, everything she had felt, that she couldn’t stand to feel for an instant longer reflected in his eyes.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered, reaching out and touching Groot, his childish misunderstanding better, anything better, then what she had just been experiencing.

“I’m so sorry.”

Tony stood still frozen before turning and walking quickly, almost running away, from the team who now had seen what he had been trying to hide, from what they had seen.

Tony was in his darkened workshop now, windows one way so no one could see him now, could see him vulnerable. But they had, the guardians knew now, he was weak, he was wrong, it was his fault, all his fault, all his fault.

He lay his head in his hands as his mind continued around and around.

_All his fault allhisfaultallhisfaultallhi-_

“Sir, there’s someone outside.” Friday’s tone was low volume but still at normal peppiness and Tony was hit again, JARVIS would’ve known to change but he was gone too, his fault, all his fault.

“Sir, the Starlord is here.”

He wanted to yell that no, this was his place, no one was allowed in, to scream that he needed to hide now where no one could find him, and besides he could never face him again, not now after Peter and the others knew how broken he truly was.

But a little spark, lit by that first smile, fanned by talks and winks and gestures wanted otherwise and it seemed as though it was this spark that had control over the mouth at the moment.

“Ok. Let him in.”

The doors slid smoothly open and Peter half stumbled inside. Tony waited for him to admonish him perhaps, to look at him and change his mind, turn back in disgust, to do what everyone else had done, to leave. He didn’t expect him to walk over to where he sat and silently pull up a chair from nearby and sit down with him, waiting for him to speak. After an eternity he did, an almost mechanical voice issuing from his mouth.

“I disappeared after Siberia because I was hurt. There was a fight, Steve and Barnes against me.” He didn’t pause to wonder if Peter knew the names, didn’t pause at all, just continued on in the terrible monotone. My fault. I attacked. Turns out….. turns out Barnes killed my mom. It wasn’t his fault really, but I….and Steve knew…. and we fought. And then I was injured. So I spent a month lying in a hospital bed while they operated and cut and stitched and the all the doctors coming to heal everything wrong with me. So I kept waiting for them to fix me, until finally I realized. Some things are to broken to fix. So I came back, all ugly and broken and I made sure to put on a pretty face for the press.” He shrugged, too afraid to look at Peter now that he had seen what lay beneath his plastic smiles.

“No, Tony.” Peters tone was soft but firm as he gently turned Tony’s face to face his own. “Not your fault. And I know I haven’t been here long, but I have seen you, Tony. I have seen you be kind and generous and _good_ , and maybe you are a little broken inside, maybe you can’t fix yourself, but you shouldn’t have to. You _don’t_ have to. Because I have seen you and you are beautiful, Tony. And maybe I can’t fix you either, maybe I can’t do a damned thing about all the shit that’s happened to you although god knows I want to. But I’m not going to leave you like this, me and all the guardians- you took us into your home, and you’re part of the family now. And to me- to me, Anthony Edward Stark, you are one of the most beautiful, precious thing to ever exist.”

Tears had gathered on both their faces at this point, and Tony could say nothing in answer, choked up he just leaned into Peter’s arms, where they remained, Peter holding Tony close to his chest, arms encircling him protectively, drawing him in.

Things after that night, when they had both fallen asleep there, were different. Rocket and Groot still came to work with him, Groot and DUM-E communicating in an odd mix of beeps and “I am groot”s. Tony still joined them for dinner afterwards, basking in the warmth and laughter that followed every petty squabble. But now, after dinner, Peter and Tony would go off together, to his workshop, just talking, inanely some of the time, more seriously others, Peter sharing his time with the ravagers in exchange for Tony’s stories of boarding school, Peter’s fights as Star Lord and, tentatively, some Iron Man stories from Tony. Eventually darker things came out, the truth behind Peter’s mom’s death, Tony’s abduction and reason behind it, Peter’s fears of messing up leading the team, Tony’s regret and guilt about his. It was after one such talk, where Tony admitted he still had nightmares, where he’d be drowning, and would run out of air, feeling water fill his lungs before waking up gasping, or where he’d feel shrapnel piercing his skin in slow motion, sharp metal scraping in closer and closer to his heart, when it was late and Peter knew if he didn’t tell Tony to sleep he wouldn’t, he offered

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight?”

Tony’s eyes grew and for a moment Peter wanted to punch himself for suggesting it- it was clearly wrong it-

“I’d like that.” Tony smiled at him, and Peter lost himself in his wide deep chocolate eyes.

They started on opposite sides of the bed, but when Peter woke up he found they had both shifted, and he was lying practically holding Tony who was curled into him, eyes closed, deep in the longest uninterrupted sleep he’d had in awhile.

As Peter looked down at him, before he could move away Tony’s eyes opened slowly, two wide chocolate seas in which Peter was lost.

“Peter.” His voice was slurred slightly from sleep, his face softer then the guardian had ever seen, still half slumbering. They looked at eachother for a minute, both prepared to move away, but neither of them stirring from their space.

“Good morning, Peter.” Tony yawned slightly, moving a hand up to his fluffed up hair.

“Morning Tony.” He smiled back at him, both of them unwilling to move until-

“Sir, not to interrupt but you have a meeting in twenty minutes with Ms. Archuleta regarding our most recent developments in the eastern division.” FRIDAY’s cool voice broke through, shattering the moment.   
“Oh shit!” Tony sprang up from the bed, quickly dressing and running into the bathroom until he came out, fluffy hair teased into place, every inch the billionaire businessman.   
“I’m sorry-I need to go.”

Peter nodded, after all he did understand, Tony had a business to run, he had things to do, and he couldn’t just stay in bed with him all day, no matter how much they (both?) wanted to.

Tony was halfway out the door when he turned back and leaned over the bed to press a quick kiss on Peter’s lips.  
“Thank you for staying.”

And then he was gone, out to meet with some woman, leaving Peter with the feeling of his kiss and his words behind him.

“So, Rocket” Peter tried to sound casual.  
“Yeah?” Rocket shoved another handful of potato chips into his mouth.

“Any idea on when the ship’ll be fixed? It’ll take a while right?”

“Nah, another couple a weeks at most.” He grinned. “And then we’re no longer stranded on this planet.” He tilted his head a little. “That is what you want, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I mean, sure. Space. Exciting. All of the..” he gestured aimlessly. “Spaciness.”

“Nothing that might make ya wanna stay here?”

Peter was just opening his mouth to deny it when the door slid open and Tony walked in, his face lighting up as he saw Peter.

“Good meeting?”

“Somewhat.” Tony shrugged, falling onto the couch next to the guardian. “Didn’t really matter. I’m sorry it interrupted us.”  
Rocket dropped his potato chips.   
“Interruptin’ you?” He turned to groot, sitting on the table kicking his legs and hissed “I told you!”

“Shut up, Rocket. It wasn’t like that.” Peter said quickly, not even looking over as he fastened his eyes on Tony’s. “It’s fine.”

“Still. I think we should do that again. And I won’t have to run so quickly.”

“I am groot!”  
“Shut up, Groot.” Peter groaned, unable to keep a smile from creeping over his face. “So next time you mean you won’t kiss and run?” he lowered his voice a bit, moving ever so slightly towards him.

“No.” Tony breathed out, aware of how close they suddenly were. “No. Next time I intend to kiss you properly.”

In answer Peter leaned in further, gently pulling Tony towards him and kissing him deeply, both of them drawn into it, gently at first and then deeper, more intense, their tongues exploring each other’s mouths until they pulled apart.

“Like that?” Peter asked

“Yes. Just like that.”

“Are you two done?”

“Shut up, Rocket!”

And so for the first time in ages, Tony was happy. He’d work in the day with Rocket, spend the afternoons and evening with whoever happened to be around at the time, and spend the night with Peter. Then, of course, the villain decided to strike. No one was sure who it even was exactly but he was causing utter chaos. So much so that SHIELD couldn’t handle it. So much so that the Earth needed it’s last line of defense. Rocket went down to the workshop one day to find it empty with a note, telling him that Tony was busy. Peter woke to an empty bed, and FRIDAY telling him to look at the news. It was everywhere, the only thing that anyone seemed to be interested in reporting- the avengers were coming home. The big question was

“Will Iron Man be joining them?” The smiling blonde turned to the equally toothy grinned brunette on the screen.

“I can’t imagine not, Karen. After all, putting away the suit in time of peace is one thing, but now, well, it would just be selfish, don’t you think?”  
Peter shut off the screen a sick feeling in his stomach as he went off to find Tony, not down in his dark safe workshop, but his bright white office, surrounded by noise and light, sitting bolt upright, dressed impeccably, sunglasses placed firmly on his face.He was on the phone speaking in his Official Voice, the one which demanded to be heard and obeyed, the one he used when he couldn’t use his ow n.

“Of course. It’s the least I could do. No, it’s not a problem. No. I don’t know that. We’ll have to see what’s functional.” He hung up the phone quickly, and then noticed Peter in the doorway.

“So I assume you’ve also heard?”

“Your team is coming back.”

Tony nodded. “Instant pardon. The world needs the avengers. And of course, they’re clamoring for Iron Man to join. The invincible Iron Man” he let out a bitter snort. “As though Cap didn’t tear right through the suit.”

Peter crossed over behind the desk separating the two of them and wordlessly enveloped him in a hug, pulling Tony’s head to his chest, right over his heart. He was stiff, ice cold for a moment, not expecting the embrace before leaning into him.

“I don’t want to fight.” Tony whispered into Peter’s strong muscled chest. “I don’t want to be Iron Man here anymore.”

Peter pulled away gently, pulling up a chair so he could sit eye level with Tony.

“I know.”

“You must think I’m selfish. You, guardian of the galaxy and me, just weak.”

“I don’t think you’re weak. I think you’re strong. And I think you’ve been hurt, more hurt than anyone ever should be, and I think that because you are so strong you built up walls, and you’re afraid to let yourself be hurt like that again. And that is not weakness, Tony. That’s human. You’re allowed to be human. And at the end of the day, the decision of whether or not to put that suit on is yours. If you decide to wear the suit and fight as Iron Man, that will be amazing. And if you decide not to that is ok and we will support you and no one of us will think less of you.

Tony looked up, face set.

“I’m going to do it. But I just want to ask-can you be with me when they come back?”

“Of course Tony. Whatever you want.”

In fact it was not just Peter but the entire team who just happened to be hanging around the entrance when it came time for the avengers to return. They watched as they approached, Rogers in the lead, closely followed by Barnes on his immediate right. Tony swallowed thickly as he took in the sight, Natasha on his left, the woman who, at the last moment betrayed him, he saw Lang, the one who had invaded his suit, his armor, he watched as behind them Wanda approached, the witch who had entered his mind. He saw Wilson, Barton and T’challa following behind, bringing up the rear, completing the team. A team Tony didn’t seem to be a part of, a team which Tony realized with a jolt he didn’t really want to be a part of.

“Tony.” Steve held out his hand, always the good Captain America.

“Steve.” Tony took it, pasting on a smile as they shook. Steve looked questioningly at Peter, the only one visible from the outside of the compound but Tony merely pulled his hand back and said.

“I’ve remodeled a bit since you were last here. I’ll have someone show you around.

He turned and began walking into the compound, reaching out for Peter’s hand as he did so,clutching it tightly.

“You ok?” The blond whispered to him.

“All good.” But he didn’t loosen his knuckle whitening grip.

He turned back to the avengers who by now had come inside and seen the group of aliens who were doing their best to look casual, from Gamora who was leaning against a wall sharpening her long sword, to Groot who had several branches draped what he probably thought was casually over a couch.

“Oh yes. These are the Guardians of the Galaxy. Landed here some time ago and been staying here for a bit.

“I am Groot!” He de tangled a branch to wave at them cheerfully.

“Did the tiny tree just talk?.” Steve was astonished to say the least.

“Did the giant dorito just talk?” Rocket snarked back unamused.

Steve opened his mouth to reply before closing it, clearly thinking better of it.

“That’s as he told you, Groot, our tree, Rocket, our engineer, Gamora our loyal scary sword assasin, Mantis, she’s our mind manipulator who always asks first, Drax, our big smash guy who sticks around, and of course the half human leader Starlord.” He pulled his hand from Peters to gesture to the Guardians in turn. The Avengers eyes followed his hand as he did, none of them missing it slide back into Peter’s grip when it was done pointing.

“Now, if all of you are prepared, we can move in to the briefing room.” Tony continued, leading to the large conference room set up for this purpose. Both teams followed, Groot having climbed back on Rockets shoulder, whispering something about the others that Tony was sure was “I am Groot” but caused Rocket to erupt into laughter.

“Sorry.” He said looking around the room at the avengers who were looking at him somewhat askance at his levity in the situation. “Historical meetings of teams, threat to the Earth, this is serious, got it. I’m serious.”

“So these guys are fighting alongside us?” Clinton asked incredulously as Tony began explaining the aliens who had surrounded the earth and given tonight as a deadline for their ridiculous demands.

“You are welcome.” Drax answered from the back of the room. “Few have the privilege.”

“You have very little experience fighting a non Terran species.” Gamora spoke up. “We have more.”

“So, you guys stay on Earth now?” Clint continued.

“Actually, we’ve just finished fixing their ship. We’re just lucky they agreed to stay to help us fight before leaving.” Tony answered, looking down at the hologram he was presenting as he did so. He continued with the briefing, tersely.

The fight that resulted later was quick and surprisingly without complication. Which was a good thing, Tony reminded himself as he perched on the couch the guardians all packing up their things to leave. It was a great thing he told himself firmly as he escorted them to their newly fixed ship, each one giving him a hug of various strengths, until only Peter was left. The two stood in front of eachother awkwardly, neither of them knowing what to say.

At last Peter broke through the heavy silence.

“I’m gonna call you. And I don’t care what kind of crazy project you’re working on, you’re going to speak with me ok?”

Tony nodded, and the two fell back into silence until Rocket poked his head out and called

“As much as I’d love to watch the two of you stare into each others eyes forever, we gotta go!”

Peter pulled Tony into a hug.

“You have my contact. Call me all the time.” In answer Tony tilted his head up and pulled Peter down into a deep kiss.

“I love you, Peter Quill.” He smiled up at him blinking hard to keep his eyes clear. “Starlord.”

“I love you, Tony Stark. Iron Man.”

Peter entered the ship with a heavy step, walking slowly to the pilots seat. He felt everyone’s eyes on him as he sat down.

“Where’s Tony?” Mantis asked casually braiding Gamora’s hair.

“Tony’s not coming.” Peter answered with a leaden voice.

Glances were exchanged.

“Told you.” whispered Gamora and Rocket handed over 20 units.

He turned on her. “What does that mean ‘told you’?!”

“Well I didn’t think you were enough of an idiot to fly away without him. Or that he was stupid enough to let you fly away.”

“Wait, Tony isn’t stupid!” Peter blurted out before continuing “besides so what, you thought I was going to stay here?”

“Why would you stay here?” Drax asked sounding genuinely confused before beginning to laugh. “You thought…you thought that we would leave you and Tony here?!”

“Well what was I supposed to think?” Peter crossed his arms over his chest defensively.

“That he’s coming of course.” Gamora answered, still unmoving as Mantis weaved her hair into a perfect dutch braid.

“Go back and get him, ya dumbass!” Rocket said.

“Tony has a life here, a company, friends. I can’t just ask him to leave all that for me.”

“Why don’t you leave that decision to him?” Gamora spoke softly. With everyone staring at him waiting, he got up and walked out, picking up speed as he reached the doorway and saw Tony, facing away walking back slowly, shoulders hunched over now that he thought no one could see him, kicking at something on the ground.

“Tony!” The name came out louder then Peter intended and Tony turned to see him, straightening up.  
“Peter? Did you forget something?” Tony called back, not moving away, but not moving closer either.

“Yeah.” Peter answered, coming over to him. “Yeah I did. You.”

“Me?” hope bled through the confusion Tony tried to inject into his voice.

“You, Stark. I don’t want to leave you here. Come with us. You can still do paperwork and sign things up in space, and you’ll be with us, and- and-” you’ll be with me. He didn’t say it but he didn’t have to.

“I need to get things together, clothes and shit.” Tony stammered.

“You don’t think we can get that in space? Come with us, Tony. Please. Just…..fly away with me.”

“Alright.”

“Alright?”   
Tony let out a little laugh.

“Yeah. Alright. Lets fly away.”

Tony intertwined his fingers with Peter’s and they walked together into the ship. And as the ship pulled away from the Earth, Tony was too busy kissing Peter to even see it shrink away. It was stupid. It was ignorant. It was careless. And it was wonderful. It was freeing. As Tony opened his eyes to meet Peters, pulling away gently he realized- it was love.


End file.
